Arizona summers are not only hot, but they can be dangerous and boring due to having to stay near air conditioning and drinking excessive amounts of water while keeping sun exposure to a minimum.
One early morning this June I was lucky enough to be able to go out and get a nice desert hike in before the sun heated the Earth to an unbearable temperature. Around three in the morning I packed my car up with the essentials, and made my way out to start hiking some mountains by my house at sunrise.
There were not many people out when I got there, and I had a great time filming my experience and everything I got to see. My goal was to get some cool pictures while on my adventure, and I was so grateful I was able to accomplish doing that. Below are some of the pictures I was able to capture and create on this adventure.
The sun had risen and it was peaking in and out behind some pretty dense clouds. I could see the outlines of some Saguaro cacti in the distance and set my sights on getting pictures of them. I could also see some other hikers off in the distance near where the cacti were that I wanted to photograph.
I had to do some patient waiting until the sunlight was coming through just enough to light up the plants, but not enough to where it was out completely, as that would have overexposed the plants and the mountains would have looked too drowned out. Finally, the sun just started peaking out a little bit, and as the sun rays hit the cacti, I began taking these shots:
After taking some pictures of cacti, and watching the other hikers I had seen earlier turn back, I decided it was also probably time for me to head back to my car. The adventure was turning into what felt like a walk in an oven, as the temperature neared 100 degrees. After a few good hours of hiking and having an absolute blast by myself taking pictures in the desert, I made it back to my car and headed back home while it was still early in the morning. I was so glad to have had the opportunity to get some cool pictures of some cacti in the mountains.
Please check out this YouTube video I made of this whole adventure here and check out my Instagram for the posts I made of these pictures. If you want to see the NFT of one of the photos from the adventure, you can see it on my OpenSea!
Thank you all! I hope you had as much fun reading about this adventure as I had this morning - it was truly magical.
Blake Austin Sneed